A Place You Love

Author: Lisa Ellen Niver, C’89

When I became a student at Penn, my parents recommended that I take classes from many departments. “Don’t specialize too early,” they said. I am glad I listened, because many of the classes I took led me to new ideas, new friends, and new places as I studied Hebrew while at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I graduated with a major and two minors and learned so many interesting things. In addition, I am still in contact with incredible people that I met from many of my diverse studies.

When I left Penn in 1989, I traveled to San Francisco to study medicine at UCSF, but life had other plans for me. I realizing I wanted to teach and received my Masters in Education at SFSU. After teaching for several years, I traveled for seven years on cruise ships and then returned to teaching again. Now, I am traveling full time again on my second sabbatical year in Asia.

During all of my travels and teaching, I have always written in a journal and written letters but now I also write articles that get published. 2012 has been the year of media for me with an appearance on national television, a photo shoot for a national magazine, and a recent article in National Geographic! I loved it when my bio named me as a “travel writer.”

So many people have asked me how to get started with a website or writing, and because of this, my husband and I decided to create a contest for writers all over the world. To that end, we are sponsoring a travel writing contest–no cost to enter, and we’re offering cash prizes as well as a raffle with travel literature from incredible published authors. Our theme is Inspiration: A Place You Love. Let us share your stories with our growing Global Village.

I hope all of your dreams and goals come true in 2013! Start working toward them today by joining our contest—send your article to us by February 14! All the details are available here.

Maybe this will inspire you to start writing?